1. Technical Field
The invention relates to methods and materials involved in the transformation of Brassica by particle bombardment.
2. Background Information
Brassica species include a large group of agriculturally important crops that are used by humans as vegetables, edible oils, and condiments. In fact, Brassica oil production accounts for more than 12 percent of the world's edible oil. To improve the quality of agriculturally important crops, cultivators have traditionally relied upon conventional breeding methods. With the current advances in plant molecular biology and genetics, however, cultivators can now improve plant quality through the introduction of foreign DNA.
Several different methods have been used to transform plants. One commonly used method involves bombarding plant cells with microparticles that have been coated with the DNA of interest. Indeed, particle bombardment methods have been widely used to transform corn, soybean, wheat, and rice. Attempts to transform Brassica species using particle bombardment, however, have not been as successful. In fact, the only successful transformation of Brassica required substantial manipulation of Brassica embryos. Thus, researchers currently rely on alternative approaches such as Agrobacterium-mediated methods to transform Brassica.